The pains of spring

May 16, 2008|By, MADOLIN EDWARDS

“Yes spring is here,” the emergency room nurse announced as she looked at my niece followed by her two shell-shocked aunts.

From across the room, the ER doctor agreed and immediately ordered x-rays. My 10-year-old niece was carrying her arm, a lump the size of a ping pong ball at the wrist announced to everybody who could see it, she had a broken wrist.

My brother, sister-in-law and three nephews were in Altoona for a track meet. They asked if I could pick Bailey up from her field trip and then if she could stay the night at my house. Not a problem, I assured them, and began planning some fun things for a 10-year-old.

That included picking up her 12-year-old cousin, Paige at the junior high track meet in Meyersdale (after watching a few of the events ourselves), and going to the Yutzy house for supper and playtime. Cousin Presley had two little friends staying over, so the five girls had a good time dancing, playing, swinging, riding scooters and jumping on the trampoline.

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Not a big fan of trampolines because I’ve seen so many injuries happen while on a trampoline, I envisioned knocked heads, broken arms or legs, and cringed the whole time they bounced.

To my relief, Paige said she and Bailey were going to ride bikes a while. Much safer, I thought and hardily agreed that it was a good idea. Until the screams started.

My sister and I raced Bailey to Meyersdale’s ER, holding a leaking bag of ice on her arm. Keeping her calm.

We got in a traffic jam at the Monument in Meyersdale.

“Don’t those people know there’s a kid with a broken arm in here?” Bailey cried. “Hey, gas dropped almost 10 cents,” she added after seeing the Sheetz sign.

For medical information, we put mom and dad in Altoona in touch with the nurse by cell phone.

Bailey stayed calm, answered the questions she could, put her arm on a pillow for x-rays and worried how long it would take her parents to get home. She wondered how broken bones were set and if she could pick the color of the cast.

The nurse cleaned up the strawberry on her elbow and brush burns on her arm with little ado, while the doctor commented on how well Bailey was handling the pain.

“That’s gotta hurt,” he said.

She agreed it did, especially when she moved her arm and fingers.

Eventually, the wrist had surgery to insert a pin. She got a green cast and the strawberry and incision site are starting to itch.

When it rains, it pours. Three days later, I got to the West Pac track championships late, having gone directly from work.

“Tyler’s out, probably for the season,” dad told me before I could sit down. “He pulled a hamstring.”

Not the news we wanted a week before districts.

“Between Bailey and Tyler, I hate to see what the rest of the week will be like,” I told my brother.